"This object is merely designated a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) because its orbit over time brings it within eight million kilometres of Earth's orbit, but there is nothing hazardous to Earth or even unique about this pass of the asteroid.”

Also expected within the next week is the 1998 SD9 asteroid, which will fly past around four times further away than the moon.

The 1998 SD9 is between 38m and 86m wide and is estimated to travel at a speed of 10.7km per second.

NASA has been watching the rock since it was first discovered in 1998 — is the suggestively-named '1998 SD9'.

The 1998 SD9 is expected to make a much closer pass at us from 4 lunar distances away, but no specific date has been calculated by Nasa who can only say it will pass within the next week.

According to Purdue University's Impact Earth tool it would make a crater a kilometre across and 300m deep.